Israeli strikes kill more than 60 people in Gaza, health officials say
At least 62 people have been killed in Gaza by overnight Israeli strikes, according to health officials, as the humanitarian situation worsens in the besieged strip despite renewed hope for a ceasefire.
Airstrikes began overnight on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, killing a dozen people near a displacement shelter near Palestine Stadium in Gaza City. A strike at midday on Saturday killed at least 11 people.
A displaced family in a tent was killed in an Israeli strike in Muwasi, southern Gaza, while they were sleeping.
Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 people, half of whom are women and children, local health authorities say.
Famine-like conditions reign in Gaza after a two-and-a-half month blockade imposed by Israel on all food until late May, since when Israel has allowed only a dribble of humanitarian aid into the strip.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage.
The latest killings come as a ceasefire in Gaza seems within reach, with Donald Trump saying on Friday that an agreement could come within a week. 'I think it's close,' the US president said. 'I just spoke to some of the people involved. We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire.'
Reports say Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, will visit Washington next week to discuss the ceasefire, among other topics.
The recent ceasefire with Iran, which ended a 12-day conflict that Israel perceived to be a great success, might provide breathing room for long-stalled peace talks. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Thursday: 'Along with releasing our hostages and defeating Hamas, there is an opportunity, a window of opportunity has opened and it can't be missed. Not even a single day can be wasted.'
Fighting started anew in Gaza in March, when Israel restarted its war after refusing to move to a second phase of a January ceasefire that could have led to a more permanent truce. Negotiations since then have so far been fruitless, with Hamas insisting on a total end to the war in Gaza – a demand Israel has rejected.
Since the breakdown of the March ceasefire, more than 6,000 people have been killed in Gaza. Israel, for its part, says its aim for continuing the war is to return about 50 hostages who remain in Gaza, 30 of whom are presumed to be dead. Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages if there is a permanent truce, but Netanyahu wants the militant group to be completely dismantled in Gaza.
The most recent US proposal for a ceasefire involved a 60-day pause in fighting and renewed talks to achieve long-term peace, in addition to the release of half of all living hostages and half of the deceased. Hamas previously requested amendments to the proposal to release fewer hostages and for a permanent truce, which was rejected by US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, at the end of May.
As ceasefire talks have languished, humanitarian conditions in Gaza have sharply deteriorated. Unicef said last week that 60% of water production facilities in Gaza were out of order and that there was a 50% increase in acute child malnutrition from April to May.
Scenes of chaos unfold every day as crowds of hungry Palestinians have had to walk miles and contend with confusing sets of rules to access food, now distributed from set points run by the private American initiative the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
More than 500 people have been shot dead by Israeli forces as they have attempted to get aid from GHF distribution points, with witnesses accusing Israeli soldiers shooting directly at crowds. The Israeli military said it was investigating such incidents.
Fifteen international human rights organisations have called on the GHF to halt its operations in Gaza, saying it risks being complicit in war crimes. The organisations also accused the GHF of violating the principles of neutrality and independence, cornerstones of humanitarian work.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Hamas tortures Gaza civilians while world distracted
The face of the young man staring into the camera as the crowd streams around him is strong and defiant. In his hands, the 26-year-old holds a banner bearing an incendiary message: ' Hamas does not represent us.' An accompanying video shows him spurring on others, openly fanning the flames of dissent while many of the people around him nervously avert their faces to avoid being identified on camera. That man is Ahmed al-Masri, one of the key organisers in northern Gaza of the protests that rocked the enclave in April and May. This week, pictures emerged of the same man on a stretcher, a frightened and helpless look in his eyes, his legs a bloodied mess. According to multiple sources who spoke to The Telegraph, Mr Al-Masri was abducted by Hamas gunmen in Beit Lahia, near the northern border with Israel, whereupon he was brutally tortured. His feet were deliberately broken with large stones and iron crowbars; he was also shot in the legs. The atrocity is part of an escalating wave of bloodshed unleashed by Hamas against the ordinary Gazans it purports to represent. As the terror group faces an unprecedented squeeze on its military and economic strength by Israel's grinding campaign, it is turning to ever crueller methods to keep control of an increasingly desperate population. Khaled Abu Toameh, a lecturer and expert on Palestinian affairs, said: 'After the protests of the last few months, they began executing and arresting people in order to intimidate the population and to terrorise. 'I think it's working. After a certain point, the protests disappeared.' In recent weeks, reports have multiplied of people being dragged out of aid lines, tortured in basements, or simply executed in broad daylight. One video, published gleefully by Hamas-affiliated social media accounts, showed masked figures using a long metal pole to smash a blindfolded man's kneecaps. His agonised screams and pleas for mercy are too visceral to properly describe. Much of this violence is done in the name of the so-called Sahm unit – meaning arrow in Arabic. Those who make it to hospital are sometimes hunted down and finished off in the wards. In Mr Al-Masri's case, the violence came in several waves, and was centred around a major medical facility. People with knowledge of the situation, too frightened of reprisals to be named, said the young activist was kidnapped and taken to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where he was interrogated and warned not to speak to the media. One said: 'They shot two people in front of him, then they shot him in the feet. 'They broke his feet with large stones and crowbars and threw him out in the sun for an hour. 'Then they brought an ambulance and took him to the hospital where they beat him on his feet inside the ambulance.' In another notorious incident earlier this month, Hamas gunmen allegedly taunted victims they had shot up earlier by preventing them entering a hospital, leaving them to writhe around outside. Mr Al-Masri, who runs a pharmacy business, was first taken to the main Al-Shifa hospital, but he has now been moved elsewhere for his safety, according to friends. They are now appealing to anyone who will help to get him out of Gaza, both to escape Hamas and to get proper treatment for his injuries. 'He's in an extremely bad way,' one person said. 'We are trying to do our best for him, but people are terrified of speaking out in case they're next.' Some activists believe Hamas has taken advantage of Israel's conflict with Iran to step up its campaign of intimidation while the eyes of the world are elsewhere. They are doing their best to flood the parts of social media seen by the West with graphic videos and photographs put out by Hamas in the Arabic corners of the internet that are mainly watched by people in Gaza. One, Howidy Hamza, described the victims as being 'killed twice'. First, by Hamas; second 'by a movement that refuses to see them', the pro-Palestine movement in the West, many of whose supporters, including those on university campuses, hold Hamas up as a legitimate organ of resistance. He made the point this week above a video of a blindfolded man being interrogated for alleged 'collaboration with the Palestinian Authority', the body that governs, under ultimate Israeli control, the West Bank. With that accusation amounting to a capital crime under Hamas's rule, it is likely the man was executed. The Telegraph has learnt details of a further killing of a protest organiser, Mohammed Abu Saeed, who led the movement in Khan Younis. Witnesses have said he was shot so many times in the feet that one had to be amputated. At his funeral, Hamas gunmen allegedly opened fire on the procession, killing members of his family. Alongside the physical violence, these smear campaigns against those who demonstrate dissent are a key Hamas tactic. In Gaza, accusing someone of collaborating with Israel is the worst slander. 'It goes back to the time of the British mandate,' said Mr Toameh. 'If you want to smear someone you accuse them of collaborating with the occupier. Thousands have died in the West Bank because of this since 1967.' One activist, who declined to be named, said the terror group had begun trying to entrap people into saying incriminating things by approaching them with fake social media accounts. Although the protests of April and May died out, Hamas faces an enormous challenge to its authority with the introduction of the new aid distribution system. Under a plan agreed by Israel and the US – and opposed by nearly everyone else – a US firm, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), distributes aid from a small number of specially created hubs. It has been condemned as inhumane, and there are almost daily mass shootings, with Israeli troops, who provide an outer ring of security for the US contractors, implicated by eyewitnesses. Despite the system's many cruelties, it does appear to have worried Hamas, which previously intercepted and then sold back huge amounts of aid that arrived into communities by truck. 'Hit with sticks, iron pipes and stones' On June 11, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Palestinian workers for one of the GHF hubs in an area of Al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis, killing eight. One of the dead was Osama Sa'adu Al-Masahal. His sister, Heba Almisshal, said that after the shooting, 'my brother and his companions were transported to Nasser hospital, but they were not left in peace'. She added: 'The gunmen caught them, threw them at the hospital gate, prevented doctors and nurses from providing any help, and forced people to hit them with sticks, iron pipes and stones.' It was later suggested that Hamas had targeted the workers because it believed them to be associated with a militia tied to Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a clan in the south of the strip that is being armed by Israel. As starvation increases, emboldening desperate Gazans into questioning their rulers of the past two decades, the power of these armed families, which long pre-date the terror group, has grown. On Thursday, pictures emerged of the aftermath of a firefight in the Nasser hospital after Hamas gunmen had taken cover from furious family members of a young man they had allegedly just killed. Three of their vehicles were burned. Despite all this, Hamas remains by far the most powerful Palestinian group in Gaza. As the last few weeks have shown, suggestions by hard-line Israeli ministers that ordinary Gazans could simply 'throw off' the terror group – the implication being that maybe they did not really want to – proved to be cruelly wide of the mark. It means the population, more than a hundred of whom died in less than 24 hours on Thursday, continues to be caught between the Israeli war machine and jihadists who use their suffering to justify its case in front of the world.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
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'I could do it': Eric Trump ponders a future run for president
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
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Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown is getting ICE agents hurt
White House officials say there's been a 500% increase in assaults on agents, as President Donald Trump's massive deportation campaign ramps up. Administration officials say bold tactics are needed to repel what they call an "invasion" of immigrants. But policing experts say the aggressive approach is provoking unnecessarily dangerous encounters. In a recent incident in Nebraska, a female ICE agent was thrown to the ground and choked by an accused Tren de Aragua gang member who said he was formerly a Venezuelan soldier, according to court documents. The suspect escaped and was later captured with the help of local police. Bystander videos have captured agents wrestling suspects to the ground on crowded streets and chasing them through farm fields. One widely circulated video showed an agent grabbing a U.S. citizen by the neck in a Walmart parking lot as he resisted being taken; federal prosecutors have charged the man with assault after he allegedly punched an agent. "Just this week, an ICE officer was dragged 50 yards by a car while arresting an illegal alien sex offender," Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, told USA TODAY. "Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens." Trump, who has promised to deport 1 million immigrants this year, ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest mass deportation program in history." In a June 15 social media post, he also said: "Every day, the brave men and women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment and even threats from radical Democrat politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our mandate to the American people." 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While there's little objection to detaining violent criminals, masked agents descending upon Home Depot parking lots to arrest day laborers and food vendors - most with no criminal record - sparks panic. "The aggressive police tactics being employed by the federal government are causing the issue," said longtime police supervisor Diane Goldstein, who now directs the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, which has spent decades working to develop trust between the public and police. "Their direction and their leadership is directly putting them in a horrific situation," she said. The ICE tactics on display are a dramatic departure from how cautiously ICE agents previously worked, said Jason Houser, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism official. Houser is an Afghanistan combat veteran who was ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. Previously, ICE agents prioritized serious criminal offenders for arrest, Houser said. A team of agents might work for days or weeks to surveil a single subject before making an arrest carefully timed to minimize risks to the public and to agents themselves. ICE agents are trained to "think about prioritization of public safety, risk and removability," he added. Internal Justice Department training programs stress that police agencies should focus on de-escalation whenever possible and avoid making arrests in public areas, especially when there's no imminent threat to public safety. "Now we have political quotas: 'Give me 3,000 arrests' (per day). And all gloves are off," Houser said. "It's not about public safety any more." Before Trump, assaults were on the decline An increase in assaults on officers and agents this year would reverse a three-year trend of declining incidents, according to internal Department of Homeland Security statistics. Despite millions of daily interactions with the public, it was rare for ICE, customs officers and Border Patrol agents to get attacked on the job. The agency logged 363 assault incidents in fiscal 2024, down from 474 incidents in fiscal 2023 and 524 in fiscal 2022, according to DHS data. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes both customs officers and Border Patrol agents, has 45,000 law enforcement personnel and is the nation's largest law enforcement agency. Additionally, ICE has roughly 6,200 deportation agents on staff. White House officials declined to answer USA TODAY's questions about the numbers underlying the 500% increase in assaults, including the total number of injuries and their severity. It's also unclear how many additional federal agents have so far been re-assigned to immigration enforcement. Masked agents refusing to identify themselves In Huntington Park, Calif, authorities this week detained a man they said appeared to be pretending to be an ICE agent - a situation they said was possible because real ICE agents are refusing to properly identify themselves as they aggressively detain people. Mayor Arturo Flores said the way ICE agents are acting does not present "the image of a just and lawful government." He said he can understand why people are angry and scared, especially knowing there are potential vigilantes and impersonators operating in the area. In response to the accused impersonator's arrest, Huntington Park leaders asked local police to verify the identity of any suspected ICE agents operating in the city. The suspect was found with multiple police radios, official-looking federal paperwork, flashing lights and a 9 mm handgun in his otherwise unmarked vehicle, according to city police. "When people cannot trust who is enforcing the law, public safety us undermines and fear begins to take hold," Flores said in a June 27 press conference. "What we are saying is simple: if you are acting with federal authority, show it. ID yourself Do not hide behind unmarked vehicles, facemasks and vague credentials." 'Someone's going to pull a gun' Underlying the tension between ICE and members of the public is a fundamental fact: ICE is arresting a record number of people who have no criminal record. An analysis by the Libertarian Cato Institute shows ICE is arresting four times more people with no criminal convictions or criminal charges per week now than the agency did during the same period in June 2017, when Trump was also president. "This is a radical tactical shift compared to Trump 1.0," David Bier, Cato director of immigration studies, in a post on X. ICE officials said they are responding to interference by the public. They say advocacy groups are stalking agents as they try to make arrests, putting the agents at risk and allowing their targets to escape. Federal agents testifying before a Senate committee on June 26 said that during a recent enforcement operation bystanders photographed an officer and posted the photo online with a threatening message. There's been a small but growing number of incidents, too, in which people called their local police department to report the presence of armed, masked men bundling community members into unmarked vehicles. ICE officials also often say that if hundreds of "sanctuary" jurisdictions around the country would hand over immigrants after they've completed a criminal sentence, that would reduce the need for agents to make risky, public arrests. But prior to Trump's enforcement ramp-up - about 70% of people arrested by ICE were transferred directly from the prison system into ICE custody, according to the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants. Trump's new approach has pushed agents to make more arrests in the community at places like Home Depot. The push to meet a quota is driving agents toward raids and round-ups that expose them to greater risk in the field, says Goldstein. She worries that aggressive tactics combined with masks will eventually lead to a shootout. Twenty-eight states have "Stand Your Ground" laws that allow citizens to shoot if they feel threatened. "If you have masked people running out at you, someone's going to pull a gun out and someone's going to get hurt," she said. Trump's Homeland Security leadership appears to have no plans to back down. "Federal law enforcement is facing an ever-escalating increase in assaults," DHS posted to X, "but we will not be deterred."
